16/09/2022 Fortnite Creator's Epic Games Store Launches First NFT Game

Mythical Games’ Blankos Block Party, which the studio claims has more than a million players, is now available on the Epic Games marketplace.


Blankos Block Party. Image: Mythical Games
Blankos Block Party. Image: Mythical Games

Blankos Block Party, anNFT-powered online creation game, launched today on the Epic Games Store, becoming the firstWeb3title published on the popular PC gaming marketplace.

Mythical Games’ title was previously available fromits own websiteafter launching with an open beta in December 2020, and the company said in June this year that Blankos had amassed more than one million total users to date.

The studio announced plans in June to bring the free-to-play title to the Epic Games Store this year, but it was unclear whether it would be the first such game to reach the marketplace. Gala Games previously announced that its Western-themed shooter Gritwould be first Web3 game on the platform, but it’snot yet available.

Blankos Block Party lets users play and collaborate in a colorful online world, and is inspired by designer/vinyl toy culture. NFTs are used in the game to represent unique items like avatar designs and accessories, which can be bought and sold through the game’s marketplace.

Since launching, the game has brought in a number ofbrand and artist partnersfor limited-edition drops, including Burberry, Atari, and musician Deadmau5. However, owning NFTs is not required to play the game. An NFT is a blockchaintokenthat represents ownership in an item, including video game goods like characters, weapons, and virtual land.

Epic Games Store, which claimed more than194 million total usersby the end of 2021, has taken a different approach to Web3 gaming than its chief rival, Valve’s Steam marketplace. Last fall, Valve said that developerscould not publish games on Steamthat used NFTs or cryptocurrencies in any way.

In response, Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeneytweetedthat while the studio—which publishes the smash hit Fortnite—itself didn’t plan to use NFTs or Web3 tech, it would allow other creators to use them so long as they abide by laws and marketplace guidelines.

Arts

https://decrypt.co/109742/fortnite-epic-games-store-nft-game-blankos-block-party

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By OthersideDeployer
Alex in Wonderland
A figure, Alex, stands mostly naked in the midst of a physical and psychological maelstrom. He is clad only in nostalgic 80’s era socks, on a tenuous island between active waters and a variety of shark denizens. Sharks on the right side of the image are all beached, including a shark with a quartz crystal snout, an orange shark wrapped in a life buoy, and a shark further in the distance wearing an 80’s style shirt with the number “88”. On the left side is the largest shark, wearing bright glossy red lipstick and brandishing prominent teeth with braces. She is cordoned off from the figure by a roped float divider, and within her thought bubble is a warning symbol. Behind the figure, hovering in the air, are Grey aliens emerging from the distance, out of a series of elliptical UFO shaped interdimensional membranes. The Greys take on the visual form of spermazoa ostensibly impregnating the interdimensional thresholds. As is typical, these Greys inhabit a zone just behind the unconscious topology of Alex’s dissociative mind. Though Alex’s bottom half is representative, his top half mutates into a psychological cornucopia. In a manner akin to “Auto-Erotic Sphinx”, a predecessor work, the figure has self suctioned—an act of sensual infatuation, enjoyment, and exploration. Upward exists the figure’s primary conscious eye, adorned with a revolutionary beret emblazoned with a Bitcoin badge. The figure’s summit features the nose of a fighter jet facing off against video game Bullet Bills, one of whom is marked by a communist North Korean star. A cropped section of a UFO observes the contest. Alex’s mind branches both left and right. To the left is more singular embodied consciousness, manifesting two eyes and a Ganesh trunk grasping crayons. The right branch dissociates upward diagonally, emerging into an array of eyes, faces, teeth, tail, a unicorn horn, and much more—all of which participate in expressing his unconscious being; a democracy of psychic factions representing thought impressions and associations. All illumination and darkness– fernal, infernal, high consciousness and corporeal underbelly–reside in this realm. In the distance are relatively languid, light clouds, and against the firmament hovers a colossal distant eye peering over the scene and far beyond. This painting possesses underlying genetic traits with previous works such as “Auto-Erotic Sphinx with Toys”, “Dionysus”, and “Fuku-Shiva”. The work serves also as a nod to an earlier period of art inspiration during late teens and early twenties— born out of the nakedness, vulnerability, curiosity, and wonder inherent to coming of age and all subsequent psychedelic revelation.